Telephone scam call

[PaulSWilson]

Hi

My elderly father received a call from an Asian sounding person at 12:30 on 16.02.2022 saying the router had an issue. Caller got irate as my father is mostly deaf. The number was 02039768xxx. My fatehr is rather worried by these calls.

Any assistance would be gratefully received.

Regards

Paul

[MOD EDIT: number edited in case it's an innocent number being spoofed]

[Travis_M]

Hi @PaulSWilson

Thanks for posting on our community forum

So sorry to hear about this, this is certainly not one of our team making the calls and seems to be a common phishing attempt. I'd have a look here for some tips on stopping these calls coming through.

Thank you for remaining vigilant

Regards

[PaulSWilson]

Hi Travis

We have received yet another call claiming to be from Virgin Media at 14:12. The number was a different number to the last one - 0203976xxxx.

Regards

Paul

[MOD EDIT: number edited in case it's an innocent number being spoofed]

[goslow]

There is little/no point in listing the numbers unfortunately as they are either faked and don't exist or they have been cloned from a victim's number who is unconnected with the scam. The fake caller IDs are ever-changing.

Consider using a call screening device such as trueCall

https://www.truecall.co.uk/category-s/116.htm

or one of the BT phone ranges which has a 'lite' version of the trueCall system installed.

Calls are screened by the device. Approved/known callers programmed into the device can ring straight through. Unknown numbers are challenged by the screening process and the home phone will not ring until the screening is completed. This is enough to stop the automated scam calls such as those you have described.

[sictransit90]

Just taken a call (17/2/22) from man with South Asian accent named ‘James Wilson’ saying my internet was being used by someone in Mountain View, California and Virgin would need to ‘act’  I have a VPN by the way.  When I said this is obvs a scam and I would call Virgin myself to check the validity of the call he replied ‘by all means but you will only get customer services’ etc and pestered asking about what equipment I use and saying he wouldn’t ask me any personal info.  I have reported to Virgin myself.  On checking the STD code etc was 0117 …. have now removed last few digits

[nodrogd]

---

@sictransit90 wrote:

Just taken a call (17/2/22) from man with South Asian accent named ‘James Wilson’ saying my internet was being used by someone in Mountain View, California and Virgin would need to ‘act’  I have a VPN by the way.  When I said this is obvs a scam and I would call Virgin myself to check the validity of the call he replied ‘by all means but you will only get customer services’ etc and pestered asking about what equipment I use and saying he wouldn’t ask me any personal info.  I have reported to Virgin myself.  On checking the STD code etc was 0117 …. have now removed last few digits

---

The call you received was from a scam call centre based in India. They can fake or clone any number in the UK they like. They can even call you from your own number, so ignore what you see on caller display. Now you have answered a call expect a load more as your number will be flagged as responsive & circulated to other scammers. Best course of action is to hang up straight away. Do not engage with them.

[Hayley_S]

Hello @PaulSWilson,

I can see that Travis provided you with a link, this provides you on how to report fraudulent calls.

Many thanks,